[[ Set shortly after Spirit Week ]]

Although the festivities had been cut short due to the sudden appearance of the portals, Xiu had quite enjoyed the Halloween celebration. Her favourite part had without a doubt been when her uncle showed up. Finally, after a year of writing letter to him about them, Xiu had finally had the chance to introduce her uncle to her friends. In the end, he had only been able to stay long enough to meet a small number of her friends, but the baku was satisfied. He had met both Shun and Levi—her big brother and her big sister respectively—and those two had been the ones that he had been most eager to meet. After all, Xiu had written a great deal of them over the year in her letters home.

It had been a good few weeks after Spirit Week’s end when Xiu suddenly received a phone call from her uncle. The baku glanced up from her stove at the buzzing coming from her eyephone on her desk and—after casting the pan on the stove a quick look, Xiu scrambled to pick up her phone without even glancing at the screen.

”Hello?”

”Evening, Xiu.”

”Uncle!” Brightening, the baku moved back to the stove, using her shoulder to keep her phone against her ear as she took up her wooden spoon again. ”Good evening! Any particularly reason you’re calling, or are you just checking in?”

The man on the other line laughed, ”Just checking in to make sure you’re okay. I’ve been trying to call you for the past week, but I never managed to catch you. I was getting worried—I almost packed my bags to visit!”

Startled, Xiu leaned back to stare at her phone. He had called? ….Oops, so that was what all those “missed call” notifications had been about. ”Aah, sorry uncle! It was Spirit Week, and I was running an event for the Baking Club. I was pretty exhausted from running around and taking part in all the activities too. There were other club rooms to explore, a wonderland…” There was a pause, and then in a smaller voice, she added, ”…And there was a student auction too.”

This earned a surprised bark of laughter from Hayate. Xiu could practically see the wide grin on his face as he asked, ”And you, I’m guessing, took part? Who bought you—a boil? His voice suddenly took on an exaggerated, dramatic tone, ”What do you want me to tell your mother and father? Having to give their daughter’s hand to some boil they’re never met!”

Xiu puffed out her cheeks, momentarily pausing her cooking to pout at the phone (even if her uncle couldn’t see her expression). ”Uncle Hayate!”

”Kidding, kidding! Now drop that pout that I'm sure you're wearing.” He chuckled, and she could hear the creak of his chair as he leaned back, ”Anyways, yeah, I just called to check up on you and--”

“Hayate, what are you doing?”

Xiu drew the phone away from her ear, blinking at it blankly as a new voice piped out from out of nowhere. It was a man’s voice, muffled—probably because he was standing a fair distance away—but familiar. When she held the phone back to her ear, she could hear her uncle’s muffled voice—he was probably covering the speaker-piece—as he conversed with the other man. When he came back on the line, he emitted a heavy sigh. ”Sorry about that, dad decided to drop by without warning to visit.”

”Grandpa is there?” Xiu was surprised—she hadn’t seen her grandfather in over a year now, and usually wasn’t one to visit.

”Yeah,” Hayate grumbled, his voice dry, ”Apparently he hasn’t heard from us for a while, so he wanted to visit. He’s been telling us stories of ‘the old days’ the whole afternoon.” Xiu could practically see her uncle rolling his eyes, and she had to stifle a giggle when she heard the smack of her grandfather swatting him over the head. There was a plaintive noise—from Hayate, no doubt—and then the sound of footsteps fading away. Another heavy sigh, and then Hayate’s voice came back on the line. When he spoke, his voice was an overdramatic whisper.

”Help me.”

When his plead was only met by a laugh, he groaned. ”Xiu, you don’t get it—he’s been telling stories since he’s arrived this morning. ‘Remember the time you were four?’” His voice suddenly deepened in his attempt to mimic his father’s voice, ”Why, I remember when your sister pulled down your pants in front of—‘”

”--W-what!?”

”…Don’t ask. But the point is, he’s been bringing up the past all day. My childhood, your mother’s childhood, his childhood. A good part of the afternoon was spent talking about that missing heirloom too.”

Xiu switched off the stove, and had been in the midst of lifting the pan and transferring her stir-fried veggies to another plate when she suddenly perked up in interest. Setting the pan back down, she lifted a hand to press the phone against her ear, her full attention focused on her uncle. ”Heirloom?”

“Yeah—haven’t you heard of it?” He sounded surprised, though his tone was also a little exasperated, a sign that he had definitely heard the story multiple times before (and was none too happy about having to repeat it again himself). ”My grandfather—your great grandfather—used to be in possession of this…incense burner that’s been passed down through the family for generations. Supposedly it burned a special kind of incense that induced sleep. Pretty useful for a bunch of bakus like us, I’d say.” Xiu could hear the smile in the voice, but then his tone turned grim.

”It was stolen, though. Grandpa got caught up in a scuffle on the streets when he was young—ran straight into the middle of some kind of gang conflict, apparently. He was knocked out, and when he came to, the burner was gone.”

There was a moment of silence as Xiu let this information settle in—despite Hayate’s insistence that his father always told this story, this was the first that she had heard of it—and then she hummed. She probably sounded more curious than she should have with her next questions. ”And you never found out who this gang was? Or whether they’re still around today?”

”No, we never found out--…Xiu.” His voice suddenly took on a firm, warning tone. There might have been a bit of concern as well.

Xiu was quick to reassure him, keeping her voice light and cheerful. ”Don’t worry, uncle! I just thought it would be interesting to do a little research about where the burner may have ended up! I don’t intend on actually going after it.” And that was the truth. The baku was definitely interested on doing a little more research on her family background, and this seemed like an interesting topic to look into. If she found out where the incense burner went, however, it wasn’t as if she wanted to pursue it—going after an unknown gang would be foolish idea.

Hayate sounded doubtful, sounding clearly worried. ”Just promise me that--” He was interrupted by a voice—his father’s, no doubt—calling him. He began to curse, but bit down before the word could completely leave his mouth. ”Fu—sorry Xiu, I have to go. Take care, alright?”

The baku ghoul chirped a cheerful goodbye, and then set down her phone. Hmmm, a missing heirloom, huh? Sounded interesting! As for tracking who ended up with the artifact after it left her great grandfather’s hands…

She knew just who to ask.